London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 134 complaints. Of these, 78 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 37 complaints. We investigated 19 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 19 complaints and upheld 18.
95% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Barking & Dagenham's population, this is 8.1 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
9.1 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 1 out of 18 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
6% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 12% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 18 cases.
In 18 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
Council fails to investigate cancer cluster concerns
Barking and Dagenham council is to investigate reports of a possible cancer cluster within the borough, after it previously failed to act on a woman’s concerns.
London council reviews Blue Badge assessment process following Ombudsman complaint
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has agreed to review the way it assesses applications for the disabled ‘Blue Badge’ parking scheme after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found numerous failings in the way the council was running the scheme.
London council and care home amend policies after giving confusing information about fees
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Moreland House care home have agreed to change their charging policies after a resident paid too much for her care, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said.
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
Find out more about service improvements
When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 25 001 115
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- By training or other means, the Council will ensure relevant staff are aware of the Council’s responsibility to provide assessments and continuity of care to service users for whom it retains responsibility.
Case reference: 24 014 676
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- Remind relevant staff of the importance to forward complaints about care providers to the care provider, if the complainant has not sent the complaint to the care provider directly.
- Remind the Agency of its duty under its Accident and Emergency policy.
Case reference: 24 007 211
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will introduce a process to track reviews of EHC Plans to ensure the timescales set out in the code of practice are adhered to.
Case reference: 24 006 799
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will ensure procedures are in place to ensure the suitability of temporary accommodation is kept under review. Relevant staff should also be reminded
Case reference: 24 001 003
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to develop an action plan to ensure its officers are reliably considering whether the Council owes a duty to children under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 when they are missing education and ensure officers are aware that - whether the Council decides it owes a duty or not – it must record how it came to this decision and keep this under review as needed.
- The Council has agreed to remind its education staff of the Council’s duty under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to deliver all the special educational needs provision in section F of Education, Health and Care Plans and act promptly in response to reports that this is not being delivered.
- The Council has agreed to outline action it is taking, or has taken, to prevent delays in issuing Education, Health and Care Plans in the future.
- The Council has agreed to outline action it is taking or has taken to reduce future complaint handling delays and deal with any existing backlog of complaints.
Case reference: 23 005 121
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- • Share this decision with relevant housing, ASB and complaints staff and remind them:a) To complete a risk assessment when investigating ASB and be clear in communicating the approach to the victim.b) To properly consider interim accommodation requests.c) To be clear with homelessness applicants how it will assess their case in accordance with the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities.
- • Refresh training to housing and complaints staff on the Council’s duty to anticipate and make reasonable adjustments under The Equality Act. The Council should also consider how it records these.
Case reference: 24 003 197
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Transport
- The Council will review its procedure in the event it experiences difficulties sourcing support in a care and support plan. We recommend it puts in place a clear process for escalating concerns when the Council receives reports that care and support services are not being provided.
Case reference: 24 002 773
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed that it would liaise with a school the complainant's child attended, to address flaws in how the school was approaching the annual review of children's Education, Health and Care Plans. It needed to ensure arrangements were in place that parents were properly consulted as part of a review, that it asked for reports from any third parties responsible for delivering provision identified in a Plan and that it convened meetings as part of the review.
- The Council agreed to provide an update on measures it said it had begun introducing since the events covered by this complaint to identify where the review of a child's Education, Health and Care Plan had become overdue and to monitor overall trends in its performance in meeting statutory timescales for holding reviews and decision making following reviews. It would also explain to us what measures it had put in place to expedite reviews or decision making, where it knew it had exceeded the statutory targets.
Case reference: 23 017 287
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will makes its voids team aware that all necessary equipment must be in full working order before a property is allocated.
Case reference: 23 017 249
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council has agreed to review its school transport appeal procedure to ensure all those involved are aware of the differences in the guidance for post-16 transport and the need to record the decision-making process so it is clear how and why the decision was made.
Last updated: 4 April 2015